


Men of Worth

by MontanaHarper



Category: NCIS: Los Angeles
Genre: Episode Related, M/M, POV Outsider, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-22
Updated: 2011-05-22
Packaged: 2017-10-19 17:13:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/203224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MontanaHarper/pseuds/MontanaHarper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How long did it take for Callen and Sam to trust each other?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Men of Worth

> Do not trust all men, but trust men of worth; the former course is silly, the latter a mark of prudence.
> 
> —Democritus

Everyone seems to forget that Hetty can improvise with the best of them when the situation calls for it. The story she spun for Mr. Deeks and Ms. Blye was less subtle than some, but then so are Mr. Deeks and Ms. Blye, and that story was carefully crafted to fulfill their needs at the time. The truth, though, about the moment at which the partnership of Mr. Hanna and Mr. Callen finally gelled is drastically different, though not much less fraught. It is also a story that Hetty has no intention of sharing with anyone.

~ | ~ | ~

The targets were Ukrainians, part of a drug cartel that had recently branched out into kidnapping. They had come to the attention of NCIS after the disappearance of Emily Reinhart, the teenaged daughter of Admiral William Reinhart, from her mother's Hancock Park home. The kidnappers had chosen their target carefully; Admiral Reinhart was privy to a great deal of classified information that would have been of inestimable value on the black market.

The OSP was tasked with finding and rescuing Miss Reinhart before the ransom deadline; her abductors were ruthless and impatient men, and there was no doubt about what would happen to her when they discovered their demands would not be met.

It was the third assignment for Mr. Callen and Mr. Hanna, and the first with life or death consequences. They had known one another barely a month and had, so far, gotten along like oil and water. Still, they were both professionals and there was no reason to doubt their ability to function as a team.

Callen had successfully planted six listening devices throughout the Ukrainians' suite at the Renaissance while they were dining at the hotel restaurant. He had moved to the parking garage and was attaching a GPS tracking device to the undercarriage of their car when the Ukrainians apparently decided it was time to explore the Los Angeles club scene.

In accordance with Murphy's Law, Callen's in-ear radio receiver chose this moment to malfunction, leaving Sam no choice but to improvise a new cover for them both in order to extricate his partner from the potentially deadly situation. There are any number of dynamics that can be played out between two men in this type of scenario—some friendly, some violent, and nearly all employed at one time or another by Messrs. Callen and Hanna over the years. That first time, though, Sam made a surprising choice, albeit one that worked out surprisingly well on several fronts.

When the Ukrainians stepped off the elevator in the parking garage, the sight that greeted them was a mere zipper away from a public indecency charge. Sam had Callen pinned with his back against an SUV, a whispered "trust me" in his ear the only warning Sam had been able to give. In that instant, Callen made a decision that was the turning point of their partnership: he allowed himself to trust.

The rest, as they say, was history.

~ | ~ | ~

With Miss Reinhart rescued unharmed and the Ukrainians taken into custody, the operation was unarguably a success. Equally important, though—at least so far as Hetty was concerned—was the success of their partnership, built upon the solid foundation that had been laid that night.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [](http://casspeach.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**casspeach**](http://casspeach.dreamwidth.org/) and [](http://tesserae.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**tesserae**](http://tesserae.dreamwidth.org/) for their quick and thorough beta work. Thanks also to [](http://zwrusk.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**zwrusk**](http://zwrusk.dreamwidth.org/) for the title.


End file.
